NewsPublic Theater to Stage the Shakespeare (and Fletcher) Play Two Noble Kinsman

Sep 20, 2002

The Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival's 2002-03 line-up will include a play by the Bard. Well, sort of.

The Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival's 2002-03 line-up will include a play by the Bard. Well, sort of.

The Off-Broadway nonprofit, known for its ongoing devotion to the Shakespearean canon, will produce Two Noble Kinsman, a rarely seen collaboration between Shakespeare and John Fletcher which was created at the end of the former's life. The play is often left out of "complete works" collections of Big Bill's work and some scholars question whether Shakespeare had anything to do with the text.

John Fletcher was a contemporary of Shakespeare's who is also said to have teamed with his more famous friend on Henry VIII and Cardenio. He is better known, however, for his confirmed work with another man, Francis Beaumont. Together, they authored Philaster and The Maid's Tragedy. (Some have said that it was Beaumont, not the Bard, who co authored Kinsman.)

Darko Tresnjak, the memorably named director who has cut a swath through regional theatre, will direct. In the past three season, Tresnjak has found work at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, Boston's Huntington Theatre, the Westport Country Playhouse and Goodspeed Musicals of Connecticut and San Diego's Old Globe. In New York, his work was seen at the now defunct Blue Light Theatre Company.

There are no dates or casting at this point. Two Noble Kinsman completes the Public season, which also features Take Me Out, Boston Marriage, Fucking A and the musical Radiant Baby.